British Women Surgeons and Their Patients, 1860–1918
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 02 Oct 2021 at 06:58:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/19ED55AFB1F1D73AF0B101C74ECF9E87 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 02 Oct 2021 at 06:58:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/19ED55AFB1F1D73AF0B101C74ECF9E87 British Women Surgeons and their Patients, 1860–1918 When women agitated to join the medical profession in Britain during the 1860s, the practice of surgery proved both a help (women were neat, patient and used to needlework) and a hindrance (surgery was brutal, bloody and distinctly unfeminine). In this major new study, Claire Brock examines the cultural, social and self-representation of the woman sur- geon from the second half of the nineteenth century until the end of the Great War. Drawing on a rich archive of British hospital records, she investigates precisely what surgery women performed and how these procedures affected their personal and professional reputation, as well as the reactions of their patients to these new phenomena. Also pub- lished as open access, this is essential reading for those interested in the history of medicine. British Women Surgeons and their Patients, 1860– 1918 provides wide-ranging new perspectives on patient narratives and women’s participation in surgery between 1860 and 1918. This title is also available as Open Access. claire brock is Associate Professor in the School of Arts at the University of Leicester. She is the author of two monographs, The Femi- nization of Fame, 1750–1830 (2006) and The Comet Sweeper (2007), and the editor of New Audiences for Science: Women, Children, and Labour- ers (2013). Brock won the British Society for the History of Science’s international Singer Prize for young scholars (2005) and received a Wellcome Trust Research Leave Award (2012–2014) for British Women Surgeons and their Patients, 1860–1918. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 02 Oct 2021 at 06:58:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/19ED55AFB1F1D73AF0B101C74ECF9E87 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 02 Oct 2021 at 06:58:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/19ED55AFB1F1D73AF0B101C74ECF9E87 British Women Surgeons and their Patients, 1860–1918 Claire Brock University of Leicester Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 02 Oct 2021 at 06:58:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/19ED55AFB1F1D73AF0B101C74ECF9E87 University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 4843/24, 2nd Floor, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, Delhi - 110002, India 79 Anson Road, #06-04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107186934 C Claire Brock 2017 This work is in copyright. It is subject to statutory exceptions and to the provisions of relevant licensing agreements; with the exception of the Creative Commons version the link for which is provided below, no reproduction of any part of this work may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. An online version of this work is published at [http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ 9781316911921] under a Creative Commons Open Access license CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 which permits re-use, distribution and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial purposes providing appropriate credit to the original work is given. You may not distribute derivative works without permission. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 All versions of this work may contain content reproduced under license from third parties. Permission to reproduce this third-party content must be obtained from these third parties directly. When citing this work, please include a reference to the DOI 10.1017/9781316911921 First published 2017 Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd. Padstow Cornwall A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-107-18693-4 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 02 Oct 2021 at 06:58:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/19ED55AFB1F1D73AF0B101C74ECF9E87 Contents List of Figures and Table page vi List of Illustrations viii Acknowledgements ix Introduction: Disapproval, Curiosity, Amusement, Obstinate Hostility? Women and Surgery, 1860–1918 1 1 From Controversy to Consolidation: Surgery at the New Hospital for Women, 1872–1902 26 2 The Experiences of Female Surgical Patients at the Royal Free Hospital, 1903–1913 69 3 Women Surgeons and the Treatment of Malignant Disease 128 4 Inside the Theatre of War 181 5 Operating on the Home Front, 1914–1918 234 Conclusion 286 Bibliography 289 Index 297 v Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 02 Oct 2021 at 06:58:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/19ED55AFB1F1D73AF0B101C74ECF9E87 Figures and Table Figures 1.1 Major Operations Carried Out: New Hospital for Women, 1892–1902 page 46 1.2 Number of Major Operations and Post-operative Deaths: New Hospital for Women, 1893–1902 59 1.3 Percentage of Deaths to Major Operations: New Hospital for Women, 1893–1902 60 2.1 Total Number of Gynaecological Patients in Relation to the Total Number of In-Patients: Royal Free Hospital, 1904–1913 76 2.2 Total Number of In-Patients and their Geographical Location, 1909–1913 77 2.3 Ethel Vaughan-Sawyer’s Patients: Geographical Location, 1909–1913 78 2.4 Age Distribution of Patients in the Gynaecological Department under Mary Scharlieb and Ethel Vaughan-Sawyer, 1903–1913 80 2.5 Occupations of Female Patients, 1903–1913 81 3.1 Number of In-Patients and Surgical Cases: New Hospital for Women, 1900–1919 135 3.2 Use of the Electrical Department: New Hospital for Women, 1906–1919 136 3.3 X-Ray Usage, With Breakdown of Conditions Requiring Treatment, 1906 137 3.4 X-Ray Usage, With Breakdown of Conditions Requiring Treatment, 1907 138 3.5 Major and Minor Procedures: New Hospital for Women, 1900–1919 139 3.6 Deaths, including Malignant Disease, 1900–1919 141 3.7 Cases and Deaths from Malignant Disease, 1900–1919 142 vi Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 02 Oct 2021 at 06:58:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/19ED55AFB1F1D73AF0B101C74ECF9E87 List of Figures and Table vii 3.8 Types of Malignant Diseases: New Hospital for Women, 1900–1919 143 3.9 Cases of Rectal Cancer, With Surgical Procedures: New Hospital for Women, 1900–1919 147 3.10 Deaths, Recoveries and Refusals in Excision for Rectal Cancer: New Hospital for Women, 1900–1919 148 3.11 Percentage of Cancer Cases to Overall Numbers: Royal Free Hospital, 1904–1919 156 3.12 Mary Scharlieb’s Cancer Cases: Royal Free Hospital, 1904–1908 157 3.13 Ethel Vaughan-Sawyer’s Cancer Cases: Royal Free Hospital, 1904–1919 157 3.14 Mary Scharlieb’s Operability: Royal Free Hospital, 1904–1908 161 3.15 Ethel Vaughan-Sawyer’s Operability: Royal Free Hospital, 1904–1919 161 3.16 Number of Operable Cancer Cases and Wertheim Procedures by Ethel Vaughan-Sawyer: Royal Free Hospital, 1911–1919 168 5.1 Number of Students, New Students, and Departures: London School of Medicine for Women, 1914–1919 244 5.2 Louisa Aldrich-Blake’s Patients: Royal Free Hospital, Autumn 1917–Spring 1919 262 5.3 Conditions Suffered by Louisa Aldrich-Blake’s Surgical Patients: Royal Free Hospital, Autumn 1917–Spring 1919 263 5.4 Number of Operations: South London Hospital for Women and Children, 1914–1918 283 5.5 Patients: South London Hospital for Women and Children, July 1916–December 1918 284 Ta bl e 5.1 Percentage of Female Medical Students in Britain Who Began Their Studies Between 1914 and 1918 245 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 02 Oct 2021 at 06:58:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/19ED55AFB1F1D73AF0B101C74ECF9E87 Illustrations 2.1 Dorothy Temblett in better days (postcard dates 21 July 1904), Author’s Collection. 102 3.1 Garden Terrace, Rosa Morison House, New Barnet (c.1916), CMAC SA/MWF/C.44, Wellcome Library, London. 139 4.1 X-Ray Car with Tent, clearly indicated as belonging to the SWH, British Medicine in the War 1914–1917 (London: British Medical Association, 1917), Wellcome Library, London.